Xi3’s Piston “Steam Box” available for pre-order at SXSW

Piston, Xi3’s Valve-backed micro PC expected to be the first of a number of Steam boxes, will be available for pre-order at SXSW.

Attendees who pre-order will receive $100 off the price of $999.99. The firm is offering pre-orders early due to potentially high demands.

“Given the amount of awards, media attention and gamer interest the Piston console has generated since it was unveiled at CES 2013 in January, we’ve become seriously concerned that we will not be able to meet the demand for Piston consoles this year,” Xi3 founder, president and CEO Jason Sullivan said in the press release.

“That’s why we have decided to begin accepting pre-orders on our Piston console, beginning today with the start of the SXSW Gaming Expo. Attendees will also get the benefit of being the first to see the Piston Console in action. We believe there is a crying need for a machine that captures the best of both worlds, with the upgradeability of computer gaming rigs and the design and form factor of consoles.

“We believe our Piston Consoles do exactly that—deliver the beauty and small size of consoles with the upgradeability of computers.”

Valve has has already started shipping Steambox prototypes to beta testers in the US last week, and one user’s gotten his hands on one and made an unboxing video, and another video showing all the guts of the machine.